On-premise server management need not bother you anymore as there are a great number of colocation data centers available across India. Colocation involves positioning of server equipment at third party data center facilities that offer greater security and efficiency.

Why do businesses use colocation?

Colocation is an attractive service that is implemented by major IT companies to help businesses solve problems and achieve results that can be expensive or complex for them.

There are four principle drivers that are responsible for adopting colocation - Services, Cost, Performance, Compliance.

Services

A traditional data centre is a point of failure that consists of several vulnerabilities. Fires, floods, earthquakes, storms, disasters, and other manmade problems. The best way to handle the recovery is by maintaining redundancy. Colocation is a cost-effective way of building DR redundancy in typical working environments.

Cost

The cost of the highly facilitated data centre is expensive. Moreover, building a new data centre is pretty expensive for building businesses. Also, we cannot forget about the electricity cost, maintenance cost, and taxes. Every business wants a data centre to save data but cannot afford therefore colocation is the best solution for them.

Performance

Nowadays, businesses need a global presence but it also aims to access applications and data. A single data centre is often said to handle the demands of the global user hence businesses switch to reliable data centres. 

Compliance

Global businesses also have to save themselves from the government's regulations and demands. It overall affects the way applications are used and the way data is managed and secured. However, a single data centre might not satisfy the demands of the company hence they have to also seek compliance from other places.

Significance Of A Colocation Center

You may have heard someone making reference to ‘colo’ which is a short-form of co-location. Colocation is aimed at allowing enterprises to buy a rented server space in sophisticated data centers that are professionally managed so that the stress of managing on-premise IT systems is considerably reduced.
 
Standard hosting plans including shared, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting are designed to make use of servers that are owned and operated by service providers at their own facilities. In contrast, customers of colocation hosting continue to enjoy ownership of their servers without investing in efforts, floor-space, and man-hours, to operate on-premise IT platforms.
 
Facilities In Colocation Hosting

If you thought that colocation service providers are only offering space for installation of server equipment, then you are grossly mistaken. Your server will b supported by redundant power and cooling facilities in addition to seamless monitoring and bandwidth that can only be found in top tiered data centers.
 
The security measures in reputed colo centers include physical aspects such as impregnable outer walls, and round the clock presence of armed guards. Inside a colocation data center there are multiple levels of security with biometric access control systems, mantraps, and CCTV monitoring. An important features of colocation center is operational resiliency that is marked by protection against power outages, thanks to high power generators and UPS systems.
 
Safety of a colocation data center is also attributed to its location, as great care is taken to select a secure spot that lacks history of any major natural disasters including earth quakes, floods, and tornadoes to name a few. Colocation space is considered as a basis for computation of colocation plans since customers can avail an entire rack that consists of 47 units or go for units as per requirement.

Vital Features To Consider

While looking for a colocation host you need to confirm different aspects of the data center by using a standard checklist. The checklist should cover availability of near hundred percent uptime, security measures, assured tech support, SLAs, and server reboot facilities to name a few. Of course, you must also make sure that the service provider has earned a sound reputation in terms of reliability and flexibility of colocation hosting services.
 
Proximity Of Colo Center- Easy accessibility is an important consideration before choosing a host because there will be situations that demand travelling to the facility for maintenance of servers. Another factor that needs to be taken into account is redundancy of services with presence of more than one data center.
 
Connectivity- In addition to the promise of 99.99 per cent SLA backed uptime one should look for availability of multiple telecom service providers in the colocation facility. Optimized and fast routing is claimed by almost all providers but the same must be confirmed by knowing how the same is achieved.

Security As A Policy- Colocation hosting entitles users with an access to a high degree of security that may not be possible in their own on-site IT facilities. Apart from immunity to natural disasters, your servers are protected against outages due a number of factors with redundant backup and power arrangements.

By mapping growth of your computing and connectivity requirements for at least five years, you can check a colocation host’s ability to fulfill your growth objectives. Presence of high performing and energy efficient equipment guarantees an optimized infrastructure. If a colocation center is professionally managed, then you will not have to be concerned about loss of connectivity or data.

 Established colo providers can act as caretakers of your online activities by safeguarding your servers against downtime because uptime of the colo center is directly associated with high availability of your business applications.

Guaranteed Management Support- You may wonder about significance of server management facilities since your IT personnel are there to look after health of your equipment. It is always better to prepare for the worst because there is a possibility of losing your IT talent due to unpredictable nature of the industry. Managed colocation hosting services can insulate your business against such events. Look at this option as a fall-back feature of your proposed colocation facility.
 
In Conclusion

By embracing a colocation service, you are actually availing several intangible advantages. Customers of colo services empower their business with an extra layer of security and redundancy. Colocation has potential to be part of your Disaster Recovery plan during major outages. Customized colocation plans make sure that all important requirements of your IT infrastructure are fulfilled. Large colocation facilities have potential to reduce your IT spend with help of economies of scale.

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